The political movement started by Anna Hazare might be a party under law, but it would be a revolution in practice, said social activist Arvind Kejriwal, who was arrested on Sunday for protesting in front of the prime minister’s residence. He tweeted this soon after his release.
Besides Kejriwal, other members of the India Against Corruption (IAC) movement like Prashant Bhushan and Manish Sisodia were also arrested for protesting near the residences of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Nitin Gadkari.
Kejriwal had called for the protest following the recent Comptroller and Auditor General report that had pegged a notional loss of Rs 1.86 lakh crore to the exchequer on account of irregularities in the allocation of coal blocks. His supporters in Odisha and Madhya Pradesh, simultaneously, protested against the chief ministers of these states.
Kiran Bedi, another prominent member of the IAC movement, was conspicuous by her absence at on Sunday’s protests, which targeted both the Congress and BJP. She remained out of reach on phone and stayed off Twitter the whole day.
IAC members said she was out of town, but did not comment on why she did not join the protests. “We held protests outside 7 Race Course Road and 10 Janpath, as she wanted,” said a member.
Differences had become quite clear yesterday, when Bedi had tweeted that only the ruling party should be targeted; even as Kejriwal was of the view that both the Congress and BJP needed to be exposed.
After his release by the Delhi Police, Kejriwal said: “Today’s movement had two purposes — to tell people both Congress and BJP were hand-in-glove and to expose the brutal and corrupt nature of the political establishment and their arrogance of power. This political revolution would sweep the whole country in the times to come.”
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According to Devinder Sharma, a former associate of Kejriwal, it was a good road show. “Indian politics gets a fresh improved flavour after long,” he tweeted.
Kejriwal and his group planned on Sunday’s protests in a way to take the police by surprise. It was earlier planned that their journey to the prime minister’s house on Race Course Road would start from Jantar Mantar. But, Kejriwal and Gopal Rai turned up outside the prime minister's house early in the morning. The duo was arrested and taken away while the same pattern followed in front of 10 Janpath (Sonia Gandhi’s official residence) and Nitin Gadkari’s house too.
The Delhi police also issued a revised advisory, allowing Delhi Metro to resume services at all stations following the arrests. Protesters poured in at Jantar Mantar and moved in groups to the three destinations till late afternoon, even as the police used tear gas and lathicharged them.
Referring to on Sunday’s protests, Congress leader Digvijay Singh said BJP’s B-company (Kejriwal and supporters) was doing nautanki (theatre) on its behalf.